Chapter 29
Sophitia hisses softly as the lines on the back of her hand throb.
Close. Too close.
Whatever that was, it hadn't been aimed to just mark, as a warning. The intent had been immediate and unflinching, to cleave right through her arm.
She grinned at the thought.
"You're an interesting one... Valliere's familiar."
"Is that so...?"
Before a further word is spoken, Rumia floats out of the darkness, arms spread wide and open.
"But... it's my line. You're an interesting human!" she chirps. "You smell... of ash, and bloodlust~"
"... I can't deny that~" Sophitia agrees, cheerily, eyes glinting. "So... you'll understand, right? When I say that now... you won't be returning to your Master's side, ever again. Ohohoho~"
"Not so." is all Rumia has to say, in turn.
And then her fingers are a hairs-width from Sophitia's eyes. Undeterred, the Zerbst responds with a gout of flame swinging with her wand, driving the youkai of darkness back just a half-step, and following with a burning stone the size of her head, impacting directly into Rumia's chest.
The battle progresses from there, with the occasional glowing orb interspersed with gouts of flame and stone ripped up from the very earth, and lasers carving paths through the ground and golems of flowing stone.
But when it comes down to it, in spite of her monstrous strength, Rumia's speed and power... she faces a distinct handicap.
The seal.
It won't allow her to think. To plan ahead. For the most part, she fights on instinct alone, like a beast. A powerful and magical beast, to be true... but nothing more than that.
Powerful. Fast. Tenacious, and hard to slay.
But predictable. And long have men made a hobby of slaying monsters.
Minutes pass, as the two match themselves against each other, but eventually, an opening is left that Rumia's greater speed and strength cannot make irrelevant. Sophitia's hand lashes out, and closes around a fistful of hair.
"G-O-T you~" Sophitia croons softly. And without hesitation, she casts flame.
Rumia rips herself away, of course, but not fast enough. Some painful and severe burns to one hand are, Sophitia has decided, enough of a cost to pay to end this battle as the flames grow more intense and focused, skin blackening, and the stench of burning flesh rising as Rumia's screams grow silent and she becomes still.
A long moment more passes, as Sophitia painfully opens her hand and lets a fistful of bloodied and torn free hair and scalp and cloth fall in a mess, fire before her crackling as she brute-forces a healing spell, far from her focus and talent but sufficient for the current needs, and mends her hand. There will be scarring, of course. But it will still function as normal. That's fine, then.
"... Ufu..."
She pauses, turning her head back to the burning mass. The fire is there. The corpse isn't.
"Ufu... fufufu~" the chuckles sound through the darkness, coming from every direction at once.
Sophitia's grip around her wand tightens.
"Show yourself!" She barks, eyes finding nothing within the gloom.
"I think... No." the familiar's voice answers, amusement thick and palpable. "But. Thank you~. I've gotten... everything I needed. And more than I could have possibly hoped or planned for~"
"Your little Master got away." Sophitia grunts. "By now, no way I can accurately guess which route she's taken, and once she's off of Zerbst lands she's fairly well on Valliere ones. In the night, if she's smart enough not to use a torch or lantern, no way to spot her from the air either. You won, I guess, and delayed me long enough to let her get away."
"... That too. Ufufufufun~" the darkness chuckles. "I hope to see you again... next time~"
The voice trails away into silence. Then Sophitia shakes her head, and douses the lingering flame on the grass.
Next time, huh?
... Sounds almost as fun as the thought of what that Heavy Wind might do, when she finds out what [i]nearly[/i] happened.
With a spring in her step, and a wide and toothy smile, Sophitia retires for the night.
Elsewhere, in a small and hidden campsite just across the boundary between Germanian and Tristainian lands, Louise is aghast at the state of her familiar, as Rumia appears before her, covered in burns, in places with skin blackened and crisp, oozing fluid.
This is what comes of fighting a fire mage out to kill? She can't help but shudder at the thought of what would have happened if [i]she[/i] couldn't get away. She's fairly sure Rumia will heal from even this, but...
She's seldom seen so much of her familiar, she reflects. Or, for that matter, wanted to see so much less.
A reddened and burned hand pats down on her head, an unusual... unprecedented, in fact, show of affection from the youkai.
"There~ There~" Rumia says, eyes glinting a little, red in the dark. "It's okay. I chose to do this for you. Because... you are [i]my[/i] im-por-tant Master, right?"
Her smile widens, showing glinting white teeth in the darkness. A soft and low whine comes from the nearby wolf.
"... What will you do, now? Master~"
... She doesn't know. Louise can't think of what to do. The world spun around and against her so fast...
"... Home isn't far from here." she decides, after a long moment of thought. "We'll go there first."
It's not as though she's desperate to see her lady-mother, or her father, the Duke. Or for that matter, Eleanore, if she is home. But Cattelya... Cattelya has always been there. It's been too long since she's seen her.
Rumia continues to pat Louise's head, grin widening further still.
